With the iconic image of Mary Tyler Moore and her can-do spirit, Minneapolis has held a special place in the hearts of Americans for decades. Still the same friendly city that it was back when Mary was throwing her hat high, Minneapolis is also welcoming visitors to its hip new side, one that is making headlines when it comes to urban revitalizations.
“Over the course of the last three years, we’ve had an arts and culture explosion,” says Kevin Lewis, vice president of convention sales at Meet Minneapolis, pointing to developments such as the expansions of the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the new Guthrie Theater and the new Minneapolis Central Library. “In surveys, we always rate extremely high in both the cleanliness and safety of our downtown, but what people don’t know is that we have more than 32,000 residents who live in the immediate downtown area, which in turn keeps our downtown extraordinarily vibrant with theaters, museums, restaurants, and nightclubs.
“We’re much more sophisticated culturally and much more of a cosmopolitan city than I believe people realize,” he adds.
Indeed, Minneapolis is a star of the nation’s stage, with the second-highest number of theater seats per capita in the country (after New York City), and its arts scene is also infused with world-class museums and a rich musical heritage that includes the likes of Prince and Bob Dylan, and is well preserved in its historic First Avenue live music venue.
Many of the new projects that have built upon its arts and culture reputation are architectural standouts. The new incarnation of the Guthrie Theater, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, is a sleek, rounded, blue structure that sits along the Mississippi River in an area being redeveloped with restaurants and retail shops. Cesar Pelli designed the new Minneapolis Central Library, an eye-catching marriage of high-tech and architectural innovation. Meanwhile, the city’s Weisman Art Museum, a Frank Gehry-designed building that resembles—but predates—his Guggenheim in Bilbao, is planning to unveil an addition, also designed by Gehry, in 2009.
Beyond its ever-evolving artsy side, Lewis points to the city’s expanding hotel lineup and a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins baseball team, scheduled to debut in 2010.
Lewis also says Minneapolis sets itself apart with a five-mile, climate-controlled downtown skyway system connecting meeting facilities, hotels, restaurants, and attractions, as well as its attractive setting and its accessibility to outdoor recreation, with 23 lakes and several rivers in the Twin Cities metro area.
The destination’s diversity played an integral part in the Twin Cities’ bid for the 2008 Republican National Convention, which will be held at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, but the entire metro area will host events and accommodate delegates.
“We beat out Tampa, New York and Cleveland,” Lewis says. “It’s something else that has really enhanced the wow factor here.”
